What do Ronald Reagan and Robert M. Myers have in common? The former President and the former city attorney have weighed in from their respective ends of the political spectrum to endorse candidates running for four spots on the Santa Monica City Council. Reagan is backing the three-member law-and-order slate of John Baron, Edith Shane and A. Marco Turk.

The renters rights coalition retained its grip on Santa Monica on Tuesday by electing three out of four of its City Council candidates, with political newcomer Asha Greenberg winning the fourth slot with a strong public safety message. Santa Monica was clearly not infected with anti-incumbency fever, because the two most popular candidates among voters were the two sitting council members seeking a second term.

With divided political alliances hopelessly deadlocked, the Santa Monica City Council was unable this week to elect a new mayor from within its ranks. The council, with three newly inaugurated members, tried repeatedly to elect a mayor Tuesday, but none of the council members could garner the necessary four votes to win the largely ceremonial position.

Seeking to recoup part of an $11.2-million revenue shortfall for next year, the Santa Monica City Council on this week took the first step toward raising taxes--including a new 10% tax on water bills. The vote was 5 to 2, with the members of the council's renters' rights majority voting as a bloc in favor of new taxes to balance the budget.

Former Santa Monica City Councilwoman Christine E. Reed announced Monday that she will seek the Republican nomination in a reconfigured Assembly district stretching from Canoga Park to Malibu and Santa Monica. Reed, 47, failed to win reelection in 1990, placing fourth in a field of nine candidates after she was targeted for defeat by a Santa Monica tenants rights group.

The Santa Monica City Council approved plans for a controversial office complex at Santa Monica Airport early Wednesday, despite an hours-long effort by one member to defeat the project with a point-by-point challenge of traffic and revenue information. Tempers were flaring after midnight when the council voted 4 to 3 to approve a 822,000-square-foot version of the originally proposed Santa Monica Common commercial and retail office complex.

Tenants' rights candidate Kelly Olsen claimed victory over incumbent Christine Reed in the race for the remaining seat on the Santa Monica City Council after about two-thirds of the outstanding absentee ballots were counted Wednesday morning. And Proposition W, a tenant-backed measure that would have allowed for modest rent increases on voluntarily vacated apartments, appeared headed for defeat.

As a decision neared this week on whether Santa Monica voters would get the chance to pass judgment on the city's plan for a large commercial development at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, opposition to the project surfaced on two new fronts.

Santa Monica, one of the most liberal cities in the nation, took a strong law-and-order stand Tuesday that does not bode well for the liberal rent control forces that have long dominated city politics. Only one of three candidates backed by the rent control political organization was elected to the City Council.

State Sen. Tom Hayden will preside over a meeting today on Santa Monica Bay cleanup efforts. Hayden, who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, will be joined by local and state environmental officials in an open meeting at the Santa Monica City Council chambers. Questions expected to be asked include how much money has been raised and spent for the cleanup project, what the effort has accomplished and what type of cleanup work is being given priority.